Interaction Design

‘Shaping our everyday life through digital artefacts for work for play and for entertainment’

  This is a quote from Gullian Crampton Smith the author of Designing Interactions. The book talks about Bill Moggridge (founder of the first laptop computer) and his stories from an industry insider’s viewpoint, tracing the evolution of ideas from inspiration to outcome. Interviewees discuss why personal computers have windows desktop, what turns a game into a hobby and why Google is the search engine of choice. This book proves and explains how the needs and desires of people can inspire innovative designs.

 See more at http://www.designinginteractions.com/interviews/GillianCramptonSmith

 

I also found Gullian Crampton Smith introduced the 5 dimensions of Interaction Design in the introduction of her book.

 

·         1D – Words – words are the interaction that users use to interact with.

·         2D – Visual Representation – things that the user will interact with on the interface in the following video Alan Blackwell gives a brief introduction on Visual Representation and how it links with the modern technology we use today.

·         3D – Objects or Space – the space in which the user interacts is the third dimension of interaction design. It defines the space or objects.

·         4D – Time – the time with which the user interacts with the interface.

·         5D – This defines the user’s actions or reactions to the interface and how they respond to it.

 
  These 5 points made me think about how specific consoles are designed with the user in mind, the visual interface and where or when will the advancement stop? A good example to show the technological and design advancements would be pc/console controllers. For example the Nintendo NES controller released in 1986 is similar looking to a brick sliced in half with four buttons in comparison to the curvy X-Box 360 controller released in 2005 supporting 15 buttons!

  The overall concept and purpose of the controllers is the same, they want the user to interact as much as possible with the game however improvements in technology has allowed this interaction to become easier for example over 20 years consoles have become a household item, they’re affordable, visual content has become more realistic and a bigger variety of games are available along with free downloads.

  This interesting review http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xqPbDPiqzE
from Classic Game Room talks about both consoles and their advantages but doesn’t really cover the disadvantages. Personally I think they are both great consoles in their own era. Just the fact the Nintendo NES still works perfectly 20 years from its release proves it was a solid and successful build but can the same be said about the x-box?

Recent forums on Yahoo show that the common ‘Ring of Death’ otherwise known as the red ring surrounding the ON button says otherwise, leaving many customers with an unfixable console.

 See this at http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100316204717AAokxlc

 

  I have yet to face a problem with my X-box 360 and see the hardware as a successful entertainment system however I was surprised at how good the graphics had improved in comparison to my previous PS3. I’m sure I will once again be shocked at how the future console will compare to my present one.